Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Female characters in literature

The strong female character is a stock character, the opposite of the damsel in distress. In the first half of the 20th century, the rise of mainstream feminism and the increased use of the concept in the later 20th century have reduced the concept to a standard item of pop culture fiction.

4 episodes

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  1. Jane Eyre

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell.

    18 June 2015

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    Featuring: Dinah Birch, Karen O'Brien, Sara Lyons

     
  2. Madame Bovary

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the literary sensation caused by the trial for indecency of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.

    12 July 2007

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    Featuring: Andy Martin, Mary Orr, Robert Gildea

     
  3. Mrs Dalloway

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway, published in 1925.

    3 July 2014

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    Featuring: Hermione Lee, Jane Goldman, Kathryn Simpson

     
  4. Tess of the d'Urbervilles

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which challenged Victorian morality and made Hardy's fortune when published in the 1890s.

    5 May 2016

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    Featuring: Dinah Birch, Francis O'Gorman, Jane Thomas